Should All Malaysians Overseas Be Entitled To Vote?

There are many reasons for Malaysians to be overseas. Posted there as part of their occupations. Serving the Malaysian armed forces in foreign outposts. Studying in foreign universities. Taking a long holiday. Migrated permanently and set up a home overseas, and taken up permanent residence there.

Should all of these overseas Malaysians be entitled to vote in the elections in their “home constituencies”? Isn’t it their constitutional right? Should the Election Commission be duty-bound to allow them to submit their votes by post, instead of having to come back home to do so?

If someone has migrated and not been back for 40 years, should this person be allowed to choose the ADUN/MP of a constituency here?

Take the poll (see the LoyarBuangundi box in the right sidebar), and let us know which answer most accurately reflects your view. If none of the listed options do, or if you want to elaborate on your views, then please let us know in the comments section below. Vote!

Should All Malaysians Overseas Be Entitled To Vote?

YES – They should be allowed to vote, and mechanisms should be put in place in to enable them to submit votes by post from where they are.

YES – They should be allowed to vote, but voting should be done at a Malaysian embassy or High Commission.

YES – They should be allowed to vote, but only in special cases (army postings, students, etc) should they be allowed to vote by post or some other mechanism from where they are. Otherwise, they should vote here like everyone else.

NO – Only in special cases (army postings, students, etc) should they be allowed to vote.

NO – There should be restrictions, such as a requirement to have been back to Malaysia within a certain time period, in order to qualify as an overseas voter.

NO – Malaysians who have migrated and rooted their lives in another country should not be allowed to vote.

5 Responses to Should All Malaysians Overseas Be Entitled To Vote?

Fact: "overseas" Malaysians can come back to Malaysia to vote. You do not lose your voting rights by being abroad.

The question now is whether accomodations should be made so that they can vote overseas (outside Malaysia), whether in person or by post.

My opinion: I think appropriate accommodations should be made to Malaysians living abroad to vote. However, if they have not been resident in any state of Malaysia after N years, I don't think they should be eligible to vote outside of Malaysia. What number should N be can be decided by/after public debate.

What happens if I am not eligible to pay tax here (pensioner/jobless etc) ,will I be eligible to vote ? What happens if I am a pensioner and living with my children overseas temporarily. I am a disqualified voter ? The EC should come up with plans to get every registered voters to vote instead of finding ways and means to stop voters from voting !

First question is, why are they overseas? Decades ago we do not have that many Malaysians overseas but now the estimated numbers are well over a million and many are clamoring for their rights to vote where ever they might be. The perception is that they are 'forced' to leave the country due to unfair treatment, less quality job opportunities etc etc and high percentage of them are from the Chinese community.These give credence to the ruling authority that if they are allowed to vote, majority of them will not vote for them. Hence the self applied rule, not all can vote.

All the excuses by the EC and authority not to allow them to vote are not acceptable since they can allow others that are more likely to vote them caste their votes . Hence Postal voting for Malaysians overseas can be done if they wanted to allow it.

There are may tweets for or against allowing Malaysians overseas to vote and mostly all are valid except the illogical 'No pay tax no voting rights'. All these boil down to the big question "Should All ELIGIBLE Malaysians Overseas Be Entitled To Vote?" I added the word ELIGIBLE, means not all can vote when they are overseas.

To allow eligible Malaysians overseas to vote, EC and authority can start doing the following:

1. Weaves out all those holding foreign countries PR, citizenship or dual citizenship.

2. Create a webpage form for registering those who wanted to caste as postal vote. This registration will allow close scrutiny and access their eligibility for postal votes.

3. A form to be submitted to EC by those who are planning to leave for overseas for whatever reasons other than migration or permanently. This form with details where they are from locally and where they will be when overseas so that the postal votes can be sent to them.

No 2 is for those already living overseas and together with No 3 the EC will have a database of all those eligible voters overseas. This process can also be used for Government servants posted overseas.

4. All eligible voters should receive their ballot papers by post and send back home to the EC here. Asking voters to go to embassies to vote is not practical. Of course the question of time frame of how early they can vote has to be worked out.

Another form to inform EC when they come back permanently. Those living overseas but move around can make changes on the webpage but will require at least 3 months to take effect.

We are living in a high technology environment, it should not be difficult to get the right database of all eligible oversea voters if all the relevant authorities can work closely with each other, EC, Immigration, foreign ministry and embassy staffs all over the world.

It may not be ready for the coming 13GE but a good start getting ready to allow all eligible oversea voters in the 14 GE.